Ok. So I splurged for Christmas, and got in on buying The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery for a little under $50 USD after shipping. Both games have been ravaged by critics, with TLR getting the worst of it - and a 64 metacritic average.

I started playing Infinite Undiscovery about 3 days ago - and I'm around 7hrs in (to Fayel, by the way). After playing it, I found myself agreeing with most of the consensus reviews - the game is haplessely mediocre, and a hair better than Enchanted Arms.

So I held off on playing TLR for a few days, worried that playing TLR may be a very deflating experience.

Boy, was I wrong. I've been playing it for about 5 hours nonstop, and I must say that I'm angered immensely by how incompotent the reviewers have been with the game..From what I've played of the game.

I just don't get how I can play every single JRPG made for the X360 outside of the Atlus SRPG offerings, and agree, in ranking, on most titles (although I feel most titles deserved a few points higher like LO, ToV and BD), and then find TLR at the polar opposite of what the game actually contains.

The game hits everything a SRPG should - ultra-tactical battles, classes, group formations, as well as lots of good Turn-based elements - the story isn't the best ever, but given how the game mechanics are done (think Lost Odyssey-style traveling), they're pretty great thus far.

There are bad points - loading times are pretty atrocious without the HDD install (I'm playing without the install, btw), and there is a bit of slowdown in battle (as opposed to the frame removal-fest that is Infinite Undiscovery). But the fact is, the game is just as polished as Lost Odyssey ever was, which was pretty decent (but not perfect) for a UE3-developed title.

I'll be doing the official review for VGC once I've completed the game, but as it stands - 5hrs in, I just don't see how the heck the reviewers were playing the same game I am. It stands, on it's own, up to Tales of Vesperia, Blue Dragon, and Lost Odyssey - and is absolutely head & shoulders above Eternal Sonata, Infinite Undiscovery, PSU, Kingdom Under Fire: CoD, and  Enchanted Arms.

I'd advise everyone that enjoys strategic RPGs like Ogre Battle or Final Fantasy Tactics to buy this game, and quick. I'd love to see someone that's played both Valkyria Chronicles and TLR to step up and talk about the experiences, because outside of the loading/lag issues, TLR looks like an 8.3-8.5 to me (with a large dock on graphical issues).

Just wondering did you ever played JRPG's before? And with before I mean before this gen started.

After Infinite undiscovery, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey I am not really interested in playing a JRPG on the X360. I almosted hated JRPG's thx to them.

You seem to see the same thing I do - a fantastic game, which got heavily slammed because of technical issues. I do hope the PS3 version gets polish. Reviewers... they are looking at a fixed criteria, not the experience they had with the game... hence lower scoers.

Why no install, btw?

I started playing JRPGs in the very early 90s, and started with Final Fantasy I and Dragon Quest I.

My library includes (but isn't limited to):

• Dragon Quest III, IV (played VIII significantly)
  
• Breath of Fire I/II
• Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, T, and GB versions II and III
• Lufia I
• Super Mario RPG (100% mint condition. Beat on SNES 10+ years ago)
• Chrono Trigger (100% mint condition. Beat on SNES 10+ years ago, w/ at least 5 different endings)
• RoboTrek
• Secret of Mana
• Secret of Evermore

For some of my earlier games. I've played far more than I can list - I think, at last count, I've beaten around 100 JRPGs on the NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, PS1, PS2, X360, and some quasi-JRPGs on PC such as Septerra Core. Most of the bigger series I've played - my favorite niche series would be the Terranigma series, since I was/am a big Quintet fan, and played 100% of their NA releases.

I'm of the persuasion that the SNES was the best JRPG system in history due to the Squaresoft and Enix offerings, primarly. Although I did enjoy what Atlus, Taito and Capcom did with the few JRPGs they brought over to the West. I own around 15 JRPGs on the SNES alone - most purchased on launch week in the US.

So I'd think that I've played a few JRPGs to see which ones are good :)

I think that, if the Playstation 3 version got polished to have no framerate issues, it should get reviewed around the 80-90% area by most critics...Even without a single gameplay enhancement.

No install, because I don't have NXE installed on my HDD. And even if I did - I still have to find a way to fit it on a 20GB HDD that has quite a bit of stuff on it already :-p

Lost Odyssey is fantastic and Blue Dragon is also a very enjoyable game (my personal favourite because of Akira Toriyama). Maybe you should play these games again. You miss some great JRPGs

Yeah funny that. Same thing happened to me when I played the Wii and PS3 for JRPG's. Oh um which JRPG's were they then Selnor.... uh yeah I'l go back to LO.

Poor Konichiwa lives in a bad area to not get Tales of Vesperia.

I'd argue that if you didn't like BD or LO, you'd most likely enjoy ToV.

Each X360 JRPG falls inside of one category or another (ranked in quality):

Action JRPG:
Tales of Vesperia, Eternal Sonata, Infinite Undiscovery, Phantasy Star Universe, Kingdom Under Fire: CoD

Turn Based JRPG:
Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Enchanted Arms (eM, IMO is a hybrid between a TB and SRPG)

Strategy JRPG:
The Last Remnant, Spectral Force 3, Zoids Assault, Operation: Darkness

The Last Remnant is more turn based than strategy.  The battle system is turn based but with unions instead of individual characters.

TLR does seem interesting but I will hold out to see if the PS3 or PC versions get more polish.

MrStickball, I along with a few others have questioned the reviews scores of TLR. The technical issues are no worse than Mass Effect and game itself is excellent. I finally got the Ogre Battle style gameplay I wanted. You figure reviewers would have given SE bonus points for their unique SRPG battle engine. They always chide JRPGS for being the same old same old and then they turn around and rip TLR unfairly. The IGN review in particular was a complete and utter joke.